A dead baby whale washed ashore at Sheri Beach in Congo Town on February 11, its head tightly entangled in a fishing net, drawing more than a thousand people who quickly cut the carcass apart for food before authorities arrived the next day. The incident exposed major gaps in Liberia’s coastal protection system—weak enforcement of…
Journalism
Experts Warn of Health Risk as Hungry People Eat a Dead Whale
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, environment correspondent with New Narratives Summary CONGO TOWN, Monrovia-The morning of February 11 started like most mornings at here at Sheri Beach on the shoreline of the capital – the slow crash of Atlantic waves, the smell of salt and diesel. Then someone spotted something enormous at the water’s edge: A baby…
Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust
In Liberia, a corruption case involving 25,000 bags of donated Saudi riceis from Saudi Arabia is becoming an early test of President JosephBoakai’s promise to crack down on graft. In 2024 thousands of flood victims in rural counties were left with nogovernment help after flood waters washed away homes. Prosecutorssay half the rice was stolen….
Ex-President Sirleaf Lashes Lawmakers in Capitol Speech, Calls Low Representation of Women Embarrassing
By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives Summary: • Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s former president, said the country should be ashamed that only 11 women serve in the 103-seat Legislature, a fact that is holding back the country’s development and peacebuilding. Advocates welcomed the president’s words, saying the low number reflects an unwillingness for…
For Women, Subservience Is Still the Expectation — Even When They Win a Nobel Prize
By Tetee Gebro, gender correspondent with New Narratives Summary: Leymah Gbowee, one of Liberia’s two Nobel Peace Prize winners, warned that societal pressure to conform and be subservient is holding Liberia’s women back and robbing the country of the productivity and contributions of half of its citizens. In a candid admission at the latest Feminist Lecture…
As Liberia Debates War Crimes Court, Experts Urge Forced Marriage Be Treated as a Crime
Threats to witnesses in the trials of accused perpetrators in the United States and Europe aregrowing according to justice activists. Seven victims who have testified have been relocated inthe last six months alone.New Narratives’ senior justice correspondent, Anthony Stephens, met one of the witnesses,who says he now fears for his safety after the United States…
As Liberia Debates War Crimes Court, Experts Urge Forced Marriage Be Treated as a Crime
Liberian justice advocates are pushing for stronger protections for victims as the country moves toward establishing a war crimes court. At a recent conference in Monrovia, human rights expert Elise Keppler stressed that crimes like forced marriage and other gender‑based abuses must be fully recognized in the court’s legislation to ensure meaningful justice. She said…
U.N. Begins Training Lawyers Ahead of War Crimes Court’s Establishment
Liberia is taking a major step toward long‑awaited justice as the U.N. Human Rights Office begins training 20 Liberian lawyers on prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The two‑day program aims to build local capacity ahead of a proposed war and economic crimes court, strengthening legal institutions and preparing lawyers who have never handled…
Defense Lawyers Claim Statute of Limitations Means Rebel Cannot be Tried For 1993 War Crimes
Defense lawyers representing former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti Kamara, are claiming that the statute of limitations means Kamara cannot be tried for 1993 War Crimes. According to them, it has been more than ten years from the time the crimes for which Kamara is accused were committed in Liberia, arguing, that it should be heard…
French Court Of Appeal Throws Out Rebel Commander Claim he was Underage When Crimes Took Place
The judge in former Liberian warlord, Kunti Kamara’s appeal of his 2022 conviction for war crimes, dealt a blow to Kamara’s case on Monday by striking out his two challenges to the charges.The former Ulimo rebel commander’s lawyers had introduced two new arguments in this appeal claiming that Kamara was 15 at the time the…
Lawyers for Former Rebel Commander Demand French Appeal Court to Acquit
As Kunti Kamara’s war crimes appeal enters the final stages, his lawyers are calling on the jury to reject the prosecutors’ plea of guilty due to the lack of sufficient evidence. They also want Kamara acquitted. Presenting their plea before the court Tuesday, his defense lawyers argued that the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence…
French Court of Appeal upholds Guilty Verdict for Liberian Warlord
The French Court of Appeal hand has found former Ulimo comer, Kunti Kamara guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, upholding his earlier 30-year sentence. In the French judicial system comprising 3 judges and 9 juries, the jury needed to have an innate belief in Kamara’s guilt to convict. A simple majority of jurors,…
Vigilante Mob Levels River Cess Village; Authorities Slow to Respond
Residents of Bethel in River Cess County say more than 100 men from nearby Bah Clan communities stormed their town after rumors falsely accused them of killing a missing hunter, leaving 24 homes and 27 rice kitchens burned and over 150 women and children sleeping under the palaver hut with almost nothing to eat. Survivors…
Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust
Flood victims in River Cess and Margibi say they were left hungry and abandoned after the 2024 rains destroyed their homes, even as officials promised help that never came. Their stories now sit at the center of a major corruption case involving 25,000 bags of Saudi‑donated rice that prosecutors say were diverted instead of reaching…
Saudi Rice Shipment Becomes Early Test of Boakai Government’s Anti-Corruption Drive, But Experts Say Delay in Trial is Undermining Trust
By Joyclyn Wea and Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Summary: ITI VILLAGE, River Cess County -When the rain came hard in 2024, residents here in this village in the southern part of the county described a disaster: floodwaters swallowed roads, farms, and homes, stranding people and pushing families into makeshift shelters. In the same…
Holidays, Museums, Statues. South Africans Commemorate Apartheid and Celebrate Heroes. What Can Liberia Learn?
R. Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Tourists at Constitutional Hill watch a documentary on apartheid In South Africa In November 2023 New Narratives reporters, including R. Joyclyn Wea, traveled to South Africa to learn what the country has done to commemorate and reconcile after fifty years of apartheid and see what lessons there are for…
As President Boakai Promises War Crimes Justice, What Can Liberia learn from South Africa?
In this special report Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon goes to South Africa with the New Narratives team to report on the role of commemoration in the post-apartheid era. It’s 30 years since South Africa ended the government led racial segregation system that terrorized and discriminated against the country’s non-white populations. Though many feared the end of…
South Africa Makes Gains with Reconciliation 30 Years After Apartheid. What Can Liberia Learn?
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Apartheid was a vicious system of racism and racial separation that ended 30 years ago here, just as Liberia was winding down its first civil war. Since then, South Africa has emerged as an economic powerhouse that implemented a Truth and Reconciliation process that activists, economists, and…
A Lack of Trash Management Leaves Rural Liberians Battling Health Impacts
We all know waste management is a crisis in Monrovia and Paynesville where mounds of trash line streets and block drainage causing major headaches. But it’s also a problem across rural Liberia where there is very little or no waste collection at all. People are forced to burn their trash adding to air pollution and…
10 Dead, More Than 30 Missing in River Cess Mine Collapse
Video by Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives The mudslide in Chio Town has now claimed 11 lives, deepening the grief of a community already struggling to survive as injured residents receive little to no financial support. Survivors describe a night of chaos in which families dug through collapsing earth with their bare hands to…
Mudslide Death Toll Reaches 11 As Survivors Left without Financial Assistance, Struggle to Cater to Mediation and Needs
By Eric Opa Doue, Contributing Writer CHIO TOWN, River Cess—Aaron Harris, an injured person from the Chio Town mudslide who was being treated at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, was confirmed dead on Sunday morning by authorities. This brings the number of casualties to 11. Apart from the initial ten individuals who were…